Warriors vs. Clippers: Game 2 pre-tipoff notes

LOS ANGELES — Having already taken home-court advantage from the Clippers, the Warriors went into Monday’s Game 2 wanting more.

“We didn’t come here to win one game,” Warriors head coach Mark Jackson said. “I understand that mentality, but that’s not our mentality. We respect our opponent. We respect their talent, but we’re not surprised with where we are. Now, the mission is: We want to win four games, and we want to play extremely hard and play well. That’s a tough task against this team. There’s no side of us that says, ‘We accomplished what we wanted.’ We didn’t come here to get home-court advantage. We came here to play two games and to win two games. ”

Here are the other noteworthy comments from the coaches’ pregame news conferences:

* Clippers head coach Doc Rivers thinks center DeAndre Jordan should have been the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, an award that 100 of the 125 voters agreed should be given to Chicago center Joakim Noah. Jordan finished third, a spot behind Indiana center Roy Hibbert.

“I thought (Jordan) should have won,” Rivers said. “I think that’s a great step forward for DeAndre, and he should look at it like that. I’m sure he’s disappointed, but I do think individual awards are tied to team success.”

The Warriors had two players among the top 10 for the first time in franchise history and had a player receive votes for the first time since Ronny Turiaf in 2008-09. Andre Iguodala, who finished fifth in the voting, and Andrew Bogut, who was 10th, each received one first-place vote.

“I’m thrilled,” Jackson said. “It’s just an incredible statement for them individually and for this organization. … Those two guys fully deserved it and should be commended for – at times, carrying us – and just being stellar defensively.”

* Chris Paul grabbed at his right hamstring in the first half of Game 1, made a number of uncharacteristic mistakes down the stretch and hasn’t said much about it since. Rivers used the same method.

* Rivers acknowledged that Warriors center Jermaine O’Neal appears to have revitalized his career after the big man struggled with knee issues while playing for Rivers in Boston during 2010-12.

“Last year is where I saw him make his turnaround in Phoenix,” Rivers said. “He was doing things he couldn’t do with us. With us, we told him, ‘You’re just a defensive player, and that’s it.’ … I guess he went to Germany with Kobe (Bryant) and is feeling a lot better. He looks amazing. If he wasn’t the most important player in Game 1, he was close.”

* The Clippers double-teamed and trapped Stephen Curry on almost every pick-and-roll in Game 1. The tactic limited Curry to 14 points on 6-of-16 shooting and seven assists to seven turnovers, but it also opened the door for his teammates to succeed in four-on-three situations.

“He’s been playing at an all-time high. This is the best basketball that he’s ever played,” Jackson said. “He’s turned from a star into a superstar, because he’s allowing the defense to tell him what to do. That’s what the great ones do. If you’re going to double-team him, he won’t look bad by trying to do too much. He trusts his teammates, and at the end of the day, it’s going to loosen up the defense for him to explode. It’s as simple as that.”